Posted on 12/27/2007 3:28:02 PM PST by big'ol_freeper
In an interview with CBS News' Katie Couric last week, GOP Presidential contender Mitt Romney was asked "What's the biggest mistake you've ever made?" Interestingly, he responded that his practice of the popular stand on abortion - 'personally opposed, but . . .' was his biggest mistake. However, in the same interview he noted he still supports destructive research on embryonic stage humans.
"I think from the political perspective, the biggest mistake I made was believing that my personal disagreement with abortion and my view that abortion was wrong, that somehow I could accommodate my personal view that abortion was wrong with a public view that other people should be able to make up their own mind, and the government wouldn't play a role," Romney replied.
After some time Couric pursued the matter further asking, "You said you have personal views toward abortion but felt that in the public arena, another position could exist. What is wrong with that? What's wrong with having a personal view and feeling that it's the right of individuals to make these difficult choices?"
Romney replied: "Well, what I recognized is that in a civilized society that there has to be a respect for the sanctity of life - that if you put that aside, if you say, "We're gonna start creating life and then destroying it," you're, in effect, playing God. And I think a civilized society has certain rules of conduct that it live by and one of those is to respect the sanctity of life. Another is respect in the sanctity of marriage. And...so when...I was faced with not a theoretical question of, "What do you think about abortion?" but, instead, the reality of being a governor who would sign a bill that would create life and destroy it-this was an embryonic cloning bill--I said, "I simply cannot become party to something where life would be created and then destroyed." And that made the decision for me that it was impossible to have a strong position personally opposing abortion and, at the same time, to say that we're going to have laws which permitted and permit the destruction of life throughout our society."
However in what would be seen by many as a contradiction, Romney told Couric he supported embryonic stem cell research.
Couric asked: "So what kind of embryos - embryos that are created for procreation and then would be discarded? Are those the ones that you feel are perfectly fine from which to cull cells for stem cell research?"
Romney replied: "Yes, those embryos that are referred to commonly as surplus embryos from in-vitro fertilization. Those embryos, I hope, could be available for adoption for people who would like to adopt embryos. But if a parent decides they would want to donate one of those embryos for purposes of research, in my view, that's acceptable. It should not be made against the law."
Romney noted that he would not permit public monies to pay for such research. "I wouldn't finance that with government money because it represents a moral challenge for a lot of people and I think we're better investing in places where the prospects are much better," he said.
Ohio is on 4 March and uses a primary voting system and has 88 delegates. 54 are district level, 10 are at-large, 3 are state delegates, and 21 are bonus.
It is called a winner-take-all, but I think that refers to congressional district by congressional district for the district delegates. I wonder why they would call it winner-take-all with this kind of system in place.
Lookie here, Romney is back to being pro-abortion. That didn’t last long . . . .
The last I checked, Duncan Hunter would be considered the MOST conservative, if you ignore his record on spending. However, we don’t hear much from him, here or anywhere.
At least you know I’m a girl; I’ll give you points for that.
See post 243.
Smarminess? Is that in your dictionary too?
I salute your scholarliness, then...:) Seriously though, the issue is FEDERAL FUNDING for embyronic stem cell research, not the ethics or legality per se, AND new technology may render this issue irrelevant.
I will post another article this morning and ping you all to it.
Well, I don’t agree with this view,... but say you had a brain dead child and wanted to donate his organs for the benefit of others...
The choice evidently for the biological parents is either to flush the in vitro embryos down the drain or donate them for medical research.
I suppose you could take them out of deep freeze and then bury them or cremate them. That’s like stopping life support or withdrawing a feeding tube. No doubt it is a terrible dilemma, so I tend to think the biological parents should be the ones to make the final decision on what to do with their unimplanted embryos.
I don’t like the option of donating them for medical research, but it is legal at the moment.
LOL! We definitely agree on that.
Where did I ever say “noble?”
Help!
I just think he’s come a ways toward improving his position on this, and now will pray he finishes the journey.
Don’t make assumptions about my positions when I have merely said that Romney’s position isn’t as bad as it used to be.
I’m not even sure whom I’m going to vote for yet, so could hardly be called a “Mittster.”
Whomever I vote for, it’s not going to be a happy vote, as none of the candidates is even close to perfect.
Cordially,
So then, Duncan Hunter is the only TRUE Conservative in the race; huh? I’d love to see him in the Oval Office but, I don’t see it happening.
He is wrong on that. But note that to be completely pro-life, you would probably have to ban in vitro fertilization. The key issue now is if the govt will fund embryo experiments, and Romney, Bush, Huck and Fred are right on that one. Not sure about Rudy and McCain. Anyone know for sure?
Real Catholics despise Rooty
Culture of death! Culture of death!
Squawk! Squawk!
I was being rhetorical.
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